Gwenda

Jeez, I haven’t done this in awhile. And I suspect, as is always my undoing with this sort of thing, I’ve forgotten to record some books.

This has been a very weird year for reading. I was actually shocked to discover I’m relatively on track for the 75, because I’ve been reading a lot less than normal this year. (And WAY less fiction and WAY more rereading.) Vast sections of this year have just been in too much upheaval to do much in the way of reading. And at the moment, I have several books going at once, which is highly unusual for me.

Tonight, by way of beginning to clean and sorting out books to try and sell and donate to the library to make much-needed shelf space, I actually sorted out the Really Really TBRs from the TBR pile. Managing to get it down to about a dozen books I’d like to read right away. You know, after the four or so I have going. This feeling drives me nuts. I prefer a more serendipitous way of choosing books, and am even curious as to whether having sorted out this pile will make me avoid it. Anyway, the reading life feels like it’s settling back into a more comfortable groove. I hope, hope, hope. (And the LBC going to fewer books per round in future will help immensely.) Also, I only have research books out from the library; must remedy that immediately.

So here’s an attempt at some thumbnails to catch things up. I’ll try not to go this long without doing this again, for it makes me very sad to give short shrift to books I really enjoyed. Please forgive any repeat squibbing.

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75 Books (Sort of) UpdateRead More »

I just realized that the interview I did with Maureen McHugh for the trade paperback edition of Mothers and Other Monsters, which includes all sorts of goodies and is out now, is online. (I’m working on a 75 Books update, but then realized I’d already talked about rereading it in preparation for the interview.)

Anyway, a little taste of Maureen’s wonderful answers:

I was drawn to science fiction for the ways in which it allowed me to skip parts of real life I hated. I liked SF that made life more romantic. I liked Andre Norton’s protagonists finding out they weren’t ordinary. I wanted to be a mutant, an escapee from a different reality where I was special.

I studied writing for years. Some of that was formal — I have a masters degree from New York University that would be an MFA in creative writing if I got it today. Some of it was the more traditional way to become of writer. Write a lot, most of it bad, find people who can tell you it’s bad. Learn to get better. I found power in realism. I liked  psychological realism when I read it. Those details — the moments we have all experienced but maybe never seen written down — work like a kind of electric jolt in a good story. In the Lorrie Moore story I mentioned, her two-year-old son has cancer. She describes being in the office of the pediatric oncologist and her son is doing that thing toddlers do so joyously, flicking on and off the light switch, while the pediatric oncologist explains what the cancer means and what they’ll do. How many times have I seen a toddler entranced with a switch — a flashlight, a vacuum cleaner, anything. And juxtaposed against the patient doctor explaining the moment is almost unbearable.

Buy this collection immediately, okay? (I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS YET, and if you have, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HAVEN’T BOUGHT EXTRA COPIES TO GIVE AWAY.)